The language of GABA in pollen tube growth and guidance

The achievement of double fertilization in higher plants requires the successful transport of sperm cells to the female gametes,the ovules.Pollen tubes,the tubular structure protruding from pollens,carrying the sperms play an important role in this process.How a pollen tube precisely guides its direction to gain its goal is of mystery.Previous investigation indicated that multiple signal clues from the pistils function as the route signs to regulate the pathway of pollen tube growth.Among the signal clues,c-aminobutyric acid(GABA)seems to be universal.Its gradient concentration has been found both in tobacco and Arabidopsis pollen tube guidance.In the communication of pollens and pistils,what on earth GABA tells pollen tubes is of great interest.The GABA receptors on the pollen membrane are thought to be the hinge in the language conversation.In this review,the mechanism of GABA gradient formation is investigated.The possible GABA receptor on the pollen membrane is examined and its function is discussed.To decipher the possible language of GABA in pollen tube growth and guidance,multiple methods are needed.The combination of transcriptome and proteomics assay is expected to unveil the secret.

Acquisition of LURE-Binding Activity at the Pollen Tube Tip of Torenia fournied

Pollen tube guidance is controlled by multiple complex interactions with the female tissues. Here, we show that pollen tubes of Torenia fournieri are regulated by a stylar tissue in a length-dependent manner to receive and respond to attractant LURE peptides secreted from synergid cells. We developed an immunostaining method to visualize LURE peptides bound at the plasma membrane of the tip region of the pollen tube. Using this method, we found that LURE peptides bound specifically to pollen tubes growing through a cut style. The peptides also bound to pollen tubes growing through a shorter style, which were not competent to respond to these peptides. These observations suggested a possibility that acquisition of the LURE peptide reception ability and acquisition of full competency are separable pro- cesses. RNA-Seq suggested that the transcription profile of pollen tubes was affected by both the length of the style and the cultivation period, consistently with physiological changes in binding activity and LURE response ability. The data- base generated from de novo RNA-Seq of Torenia pollen tubes was shown to be useful to identify pollen tube proteins by mass spectrometry. Our studies provide insight and an effective platform for protein identification to understand pollen tube guidance.

Pollination Methods and Embryo Rescue Techniques of Hybridization between Lilium Oriental Hybrids

The pollination methods and embryo rescue techniques of hybridization between I.ilium Oriental hybrids were studied in this paper. The results showed that ： （ 1 ） in the combination of ＇ Justina＇ x ＇ Shala＇, pollen tubes were observed to grow downward in styles and target to ovules in ovaries when normal sti^na 13o1- lination method was used; pollen tubes were found to grow directionless to a different degree at stylar cuts and in ovaries when cut-style pollination method was used; the longer the styles were left, the more pollen tubes toward to ovules were observed and more plump seeds were produced; the maximum plump seeds were obtained via normal stigma pollination. （2） Hybridization experiments were performed for the 56 combinations of Lilium Oriental hybrids with normal stigma pollina- tion, and one combination generated no plump ovule and three combinations generated fewer than 10 plump ovules while the other 52 combinations generated plenty of plump ovules, which preliminarily indicated that normal stigma pollination method could be used as an universal pollination technique for hybridization between Lilium Oriental hybrids. The experiment results of different embryo rescue techniques showed that using cut-ovule inoculation about 70 d after pollination had a fas- ter germination speed and a higher germination rate of hybrid embryo than normal ovule inoculation, and embryo rescue efficiency of the former method was obviously higher than ＂embryo isolated inoculation＂ on 40 d after pollination. The research suggested that ＂cut-ovule inoculation＂ about 70 d after pollination could be regarded as an universal embryo rescue technique for hybridization between Lilium Oriental hybrids.

Emerging role of ER quality control in plant cell signal perception

The endoplasmic reticulum quality control(ER-QC)is a conserved mechanism in surveillance of secreted signaling factors during cell-to-cell communication in eukaryotes.Recent data show that the ER-QC plays important roles in diverse cell-to-cell signaling processes during immune response,vegetative and reproductive development in plants.Pollen tube guidance is a precisely guided cell-cell communication process between the male and female gametophytes during plant reproduction.Recently,the female signal has been identified as small secreted peptides,but how the pollen tube responds to this signal is still unclear.In this review,we intend to summarize the role of ER-QC in plants and discuss the recent advances regarding our understanding of the mechanism of pollen tube response to the female signals.

RLKs orchestrate the signaling in plant male-female interaction

Different from animals, sessile plants are equipped with a large receptor-like kinase(RLK) superfamily. RLKs are a family of single trans-membrane proteins with divergent N-terminal extracellular domains capped by a signal peptide and C-terminal intracellular kinase. Researches in the last two decades have uncovered an increasing number of RLKs that regulate plant development, stress response and sexual reproduction, highlighting a dominant role of RLK signaling in cell-to-cell communications. Sexual reproduction in flowering plants is featured by interactions between the male gametophyte and the female tissues to facilitate sperm delivery and fertilization. Emerging evidences suggest that RLKs regulate almost every aspect of plant reproductive process, especially during pollination. Therefore, in this review we will focus mainly on the function and signaling of RLKs in plant male-female interaction and discuss the future prospects on these topics.